


Case File: [Unknown, Ophelia]

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: written by the victors [7]
Category: Hamlet - Shakespeare, Original Work
Genre: F/F, Fairy Tale Retellings, Feminist Themes, Lesbian Character, POV Female Character, Poetry, giving my girl her agency, giving ophelia agency in her own story, this story is subtitled B-Side: Ophelia, yo shakesp tell me abt the lady's side of things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-18 16:36:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18703372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: Approximate number of times [Unknown, Ophelia]:sleeps easily: 4; sleeps troubled by nightmares: 7; sleeps alone: 15; sleeps with a girl: 3; sleeps with a boy: 0kisses someone: 42, loves a man: 3; loves a woman: 1; falls in love: 1lies to a friend: 5; lies to her father: 11; lies to her king: 3contemplates death: 18; contemplates own death: 5; contemplates Hamlet and his family and how death seems to follow them like a wretched stench: 2; contemplates Signe’s death as a consequence of their relationship: 3runs her fingers through Signe’s soft, coily hair: 32; kisses Signe’s cheek: 24; kisses Signe’s lips: 15; kisses Signe’s bare collarbone: 3; holds Signe’s hand: 17feels strong: 4; feels strong when she is with Signe: 3; feels ashamed when she is with Hamlet: 6; feels ashamed because she feels ashamed when she is with Hamlet: 5; feels hollow: 3; feels tired of putting up with it all: 2; feels suicidal: [?]spreads flowers with a distant smile: 1; acts is the fool: 3; is the fool: 1falls from a branch: [?]; commits suicide: [?]dies: 1; rises to heaven: [?]; falls to hell: [?]





	Case File: [Unknown, Ophelia]

**Approximate number of times [Unknown, Ophelia]:**

sleeps easily: 4; sleeps troubled by nightmares: 7; sleeps alone: 15; sleeps with a girl: 3; sleeps with a boy: 0

kisses someone: 42, loves a man: 3; loves a woman: 1; falls in love: 1

lies to a friend: 5; lies to her father: 11; lies to her king: 3

contemplates death: 18; contemplates own death: 5; contemplates Hamlet and his family and how death seems to follow them like a wretched stench: 2; contemplates Signe’s death as a consequence of their relationship: 3

runs her fingers through Signe’s soft, coily hair: 32; kisses Signe’s cheek: 24; kisses Signe’s lips: 15; kisses Signe’s bare collarbone: 3; holds Signe’s hand: 17

feels strong: 4; feels strong when she is with Signe: 3; feels ashamed when she is with Hamlet: 6; feels ashamed because she feels ashamed when she is with Hamlet: 5; feels hollow: 3; feels tired of putting up with it all: 2; feels suicidal: [?]

spreads flowers with a distant smile: 1; acts is the fool: 3; is the fool: 1

falls from a branch: [?]; commits suicide: [?]

dies: 1; rises to heaven: [?]; falls to hell: [?]

 

 

**How [Unknown, Ophelia] loves:**

passionately, madly, coldly, roughly, unkindly, nimbly, caringly, warmly, brazenly, abruptly, softly, toughly, languidly, viciously, purely, sinfully, briefly and forever, thoroughly, without remorse, lustfully, recklessly, honestly

 

**How [Unknown, Ophelia] lives:**

Briefly- rarely mentioned in the page scrawled by a man who paints her the damsel.

Briefly- tumbling from a crib to a kitchenmaid’s bed to a watery grave beneath a tree.

Briefly- in a blaze of fire that tears the castle down.

 

**How [Unknown, Ophelia] dies:**

~~floating to her watery grave, the waves and her skirts enveloping her in a poetic embrace~~

 

**Who [Unknown, Ophelia] has loved:**

her father, her prince, her kitchenmaid, her brother

 

**The two things [Unknown, Ophelia] does not say:**

  1. “I love you.”
  2. “I want to die.”



 

**What [Unknown, Ophelia] is not:**

fragile

 

**How [Unknown, Ophelia] dies:**

~~cursing the heavens for the injustice of her story being overshadowed by a man's, of her life being sacrificed to feed some prince's pain~~

 

**A truth [Unknown, Ophelia] said to the playwright:**

“I was the more deceived.”

 

 **What the playwright decides** **[Unknown, Ophelia] is not important enough for:**

a backstory, a faithful lover, dignity, a kiss, a say in her own future, a birthday, a mother, reciprocated love, a spine, sanity, a life

 

**[Unknown, Ophelia]’s story is entitled:**

_Hamlet_ , filed under Tragedy.

 

**How [Unknown, Ophelia] dies:**

~~watching her life flash before her eyes, every mistake and good choice falling into the water with her~~

 

**The first time [Unknown, Ophelia] falls in love:**

the world splinters _also_ everything burns _also_ it’s a woman _also_ the Prince is the furthest thing from her mind _also_ her heart sings _also_ fuck her father _also_ Signe’s hair runs soft and crinkly under her fingertips _also_ is the only time

 

**How [Unknown, Ophelia] imagines her lover:**

age 5: a boy who will play hoops with her, who will join her on a quest to find buried treasure beneath the castle walls

age 10: a Prince, reckless and dark-eyed, with a smirk already curving his lips

age 15: nothing like herself- a beautiful girl, a princess like she could never be

age 20: a kitchenmaid named Signe, with dark hair and dark eyes and dark skin, curves glistening in the candlelight and smile a beacon of hope

 

**What [Unknown, Ophelia] does on-page:**

drifts from man to man, goes mad in her mind, falls in a lake, drops flowers into people's laps, passes quips to a prince in a theatre, breaks apart into a million insane fragments for a Prince's sake

 

**What [Unknown, Ophelia] does off-page:**

drifts across the underside of a lake, goes mad in her heart, falls in love, drops kisses onto Signe’s cheeks, passes a hair ribbon between hands in a darkened hallway, breaks a girl's heart with her death

 

**The flowers [Unknown, Ophelia] gave away:**

  1. Rosemary, for remembrance
  2. Pansies, for thoughts
  3. Fennel, for you, and Columbines
  4. Rue, for you to wear with a difference
  5. Daisy, for innocence
  6. But no Violets, for they wither’d all when her father died



 

**The flowers [Unknown, Ophelia] gave herself:**

  1. Rue, for repentance, regret, everlasting suffering, and sorrow



 

**How [Unknown, Ophelia] dies:**

[?]

 

**The scene in which [Unknown, Ophelia] ends up immortalized:**

Her descent, into madness and death, written by a playwright who writes suicide romantic rather than devastating.

 

**A descent, then:**

When Hamlet descends into madness, it is heroic. It is princely. His suicide by sword- for what else is it, truly- is considered truly regal.

When Ophelia descends into madness, it is tragic. It is delicate. She is the flower wilted, the rose with its thorns cut. She is the aftermath, the prequel, the death to further a plot.

 

**[Unknown, Ophelia]’s name becomes:**

an insult, a title for a lover scorned, a derisive nickname, a contemptuous glare, a metaphor for madness

~~a compliment, an appraising glance, a name for a lover true, a loving pet name, a simile for sympathy~~

 

**What happens to [Unknown, Ophelia] after the funeral:**

The story does not say.

 

**How a kitchenmaid grieves:**

Unnoticed, in the midst of death after death. First her lover, then the Queen and the Regent and the Prince. In a kingdom enveloped by grief, a kitchen maid's tears go unnoticed.

 

**Location of a princess’s hair ribbon:**

Tucked under a kitchenmaid’s skirts.

 

**How [Unknown, Ophelia] dies:**

Loved.


End file.
